TBI
Today, I saw one of the sadder cases I've been on. 17y/o male, simply needed a transport to two doctors appointments. Took us five hours start to finish. Anyway, the reason he needed an ambulance to do this was because he had a TBI, which stands for traumatic brain injurt, two years ago. He let a friend drive his motorcycle while he was on the back, got into an accident, and now he cannot speak, have any real voluntary movement, and likely has the mental capacity of a toddler.
He is taken care of by his mom and an aid, and both seem to do a good job of it. However, he is overall pretty healthy, and therefore I have no reason to believe he won't live to old age, but he will be stuck in his current mental state for the entire time. I didn't ask if he was wearing a helmet, but based on physical exam, I doubt it. Oh, and his friend was able to walk away from the accident.
After that we transported an old Italian guy back home from the hospital, fairly uneventful except that he was a little bit crazy. We had to use a stair chair to get him into his house.
Finally, as we were heading home we get an emergency call to a dialysis center. Older guy, turned out to be moderately tachycardic (any resting heart rate over 100) and have other abnormal EKG results. Transport was uneventful, though he seemed very nervous.
Tomorrow is my last day as a ride-along. I'm on my own starting Monday, so watch out! I bet they give me transports all day until they trust me, we'll see.
